BlizzCon 2015 was just announced! It takes place on November 6th and 7th, with tickets on sale April 15th and April 18th via Eventbrite for $199 each. The link for purchasing tickets is here, although it will not be active until April 15th.

Blizzard has also published a Ticket Purchasing Guide which has some 2015 changes.

More information will follow in upcoming weeks, including the BlizzCon Benefit Dinner, Virtual Ticket, and the Wowhead Party!

Full details below:

Blizzard

You’ve been summoned to Southern California for BlizzCon 2015! Blizzard’s ninth epic gaming convention and community celebration is returning to the Anaheim Convention Center on Friday, November 6 and Saturday, November 7, 2015. Form a party with your fellow members of the Blizzard community and get ready for two days of in-depth discussion panels with our developers, hands-on play time with the latest Blizzard games, and intense eSports tournaments featuring top pro gamers from around the world.BlizzCon 2015 tickets will go on sale in two batches on Wednesday, April 15 at 7 p.m. PT and Saturday, April 18 at 10 a.m. PT through the online event ticketing service Eventbrite, priced at $199 each (plus applicable taxes and fees). Check out the BlizzCon Ticket webpage for all the details.In addition, we’re once again planning a special pre-BlizzCon Benefit Dinner the evening of Thursday, November 5 in support of Children’s Hospital of Orange County (CHOC), where guests will have a chance to meet and chat with developers, artists, community team representatives, and others from Blizzard. Attendance to this special event will be limited, and we’ll have more information on ticket pricing and availability at a later date.If you can’t make it to the show in person, you’ll be able to watch from home with the BlizzCon Virtual Ticket, offering comprehensive live coverage of the event via a multichannel Internet stream. Further details on the Virtual Ticket, including pricing, availability, and programming information, will be announced at a later date.See the full press release or check out the BlizzCon Ticket page for more information, and be sure to visit www.blizzcon2015.eventbrite.com at the dates and times above for a chance to purchase a ticket to the show. We hope to see you there!

Ticket Purchasing Guide

Blizzard

The first batch of BlizzCon 2015 tickets goes on sale Wednesday, April 15 at 7 p.m. PT. When the time comes, hit the link below for your chance to snag some.Get BlizzCon 2015 Tickets Here Tickets usually go fast, so if you want to attend this year’s show, it pays to be prepared. Ticket sales are once again being handled through Eventbrite this year, and a few things are different from 2014. It’s worth reading our BlizzCon Ticket Info page to get an overview, but if you want more details on how it works, check out this handy guide. What Information You’ll Need to ProvideYou’ll want to have the following information handy when you’re buying BlizzCon tickets:

Your information: First Name, Last Name, Email Address, Character name (optional)

Your friends’/family’s information: First Name, Last Name, Email Address, Character Name (optional)—note that you’ll be able to go back and change these until August 14.

What’s New for 2015A few changes are in store for ticket buyers this year, including updates to how tickets are delivered based on BlizzCon 2014 feedback, as well as some changes to the Eventbrite purchasing process.Barcodes Delivered Immediately—This year, ticket buyers and attendees will receive the bar-code emails used to claim their badges immediately after purchasing tickets. In addition, bar codes will be accessible via the ticket purchaser’s Eventbrite account, where they’ll be available to view or reprint at any time. Buyers should note that bar code emails will also be sent to whoever you assign your tickets to, so if you’re not yet certain who’s coming, you might want to assign tickets to your own email address for now. (You’ll have until August 14 to make attendee changes.)Eventbrite Updates—Eventbrite has made some updates to their waiting room that should help make the experience smoother for BlizzCon hopefuls. This year, people in the waiting room will no longer be sent back to the event page if their turn comes up but the number of tickets they requested is not available. Instead, they’ll remain in the waiting room and retain their position in line until another order for the quantity of tickets they requested is released back for sale. For example, if you requested 4 tickets and reach the front of the line, the next time an order for 4 tickets is released, you’ll have first dibs. (Keep in mind this also means you won’t be able to select a different, lower ticket quantity if you reach the front of the line and the ticket quantity you requested isn’t available.)Step-by-Step GuideStep 1: Head to the Eventbrite ticketing page, and choose the quantity of tickets you wish to purchase from the drop-down menu (4 ticket per household limit).

*UPDATED FOR 2015* Step 2: Click Order Now. If all tickets have been claimed, buyers may find themselves in line in a “waiting room” while others complete their purchases—see the “What’s New for 2015” section above for more details. Keep in mind that being in the waiting room doesn’t necessarily mean you’re guaranteed tickets.Step 3: Once you’re in the checkout and registration process, you’ll have 8 minutes to complete your purchase. A countdown will be displayed on-screen so you know how much time you have remaining. After 8 minutes, the tickets will be released for others to buy, drawing from those in the waiting room.Step 4: Fill out the Ticket Buyer information (your name and email) to purchase the tickets. Make sure you enter a valid email address that you use regularly, as important event communications (including your badges) will be emailed to this address.Step 5: Enter your credit card information. Remember, you will need to have this card at the convention if you need to make changes on-site. See the Badge Information page for more information.Step 6: Enter your name and email address for the first ticket (or your friend/family member’s information if you’re purchasing a ticket for someone other than yourself), and character name (optional). If you don’t have that information now, just enter your own name and email for now—you’ll have until August 14 to make changes. *NEW FOR 2015* When entering attendee names and emails here and in Step 9, keep in mind that tickets will be sent to both the purchaser’s email address as well as the email addresses assigned to each ticket immediately upon completing your purchase.Step 7: Check the box to agree to the waiver. If you do not agree, you cannot proceed with purchasing BlizzCon tickets. Remember there is a 4-ticket-per-household limit for General Admission BlizzCon tickets.Step 8: Enter your friends’ or family members’ name and email address for each additional ticket. Again, you’ll have until August 14 to make changes, so just enter your own for now if you need to sort out who’s attending later.If you do not have that information at the time of purchase, use the drop-down menu to auto-fill the ticket with your own name and email address—or, you can manually enter your own information. Remember you need to do this separately for each additional ticket you’ll be purchasing.Step 9: You will need to agree to the waiver for each additional ticket you’re purchasing.Step 10: Once you’ve entered everything, click Pay Now.Once you click Pay Now, you will be sent to a “processing order” page. Once your order is complete, you’ll receive a confirmation email from Eventbrite—be sure to check your Spam folder if you don’t see it. *NEW FOR 2015* Emails containing bar codes to claim badges will be sent immediately upon purchase. All tickets will be sent to both the purchaser’s email address as well as the email address assigned to a ticket.Congratulations! You have successfully purchased tickets to BlizzCon 2015!

Wowhead Weekly had the opportunity for two interviews with Blizzard developers during BlizzCon -- Senior Game Designer Jeremy Feasel and Creative Director Alex Afrasiabi

First, we sat down with World of Warcraft Senior Designer Jeremy Feasel:

Jeremy Feasel, who "does a little bit of everything" for World of Warcraft, gave us lots of insight into the new direction of exploration and reward in Warlords of Draenor.

What do you do for WoW as a Senior Game Designer?"A little bit of everything"

Can you tell us a bit about the Warlords of Draenor staggered raid release schedule?Somewhat similar to MOP but slightly different because we have more bosses than MSV in the first raid, as well as (rotating) world bosses that come out later.

Has the design philosophy behind exclusive or time sensitive content like Challenge Modes/Legendary Cloaks changed?-We want players that played then to feel awesome, that has value and prestige. The choice is between encapsulating moments and keeping content for other people to experience.

Holidays changes! Why now?-Purpose of time gated content is to feel like something new is always coming rather than oppressing them into one style of game play. We felt players had maxed out most holiday content.Class balance in 6.0 - are we just waiting for level 100?-Class team is always looking at outliers with sim bots. Things are always changing and we care and are making changes. Mostly looking forward to the future. There is a constant seesaw battle in balancing and please keep giving feedback!

Challenge modes - are you trying to incentivize people to do them even if they are not getting gold?-CMs were new in MOP and we learned a lot from being able to do that. New season is more accessible in terms of rewards for non-golds and we want more players doing them. We want players in all content and we love that players want to do CMs.

Garrisons - is this expansion just Garrisons? Too much going through Garrisons?-They are designed around being optional. They didn't like the Pandaria farm because it was too much time and not enough impact. Garrisons "concentrated coolness down" and allow for much more character customization through outposts. We want you to look forward to it instead of just logging in once a day and clicking some things. With Garrisons, every building has an impact on the world. "It's like super christmas!"

In Warlords, do you level at the same rate as past expansions? Is it fast or slow?-Leveling per zone may be a bit faster than before. There are fewer standard quests in every zone but way more optional content, like bonus objectives and followers and treasures. Good rewards for not questing. More of an exploratory experience.

What about leveling through dungeons?-We do want to give players options, especially for alts. Realm firsts railroaded you into one course of action and we want people to do more stuff.

Timeless isle - what have you learned?-We don't want people to repeat loads of rares all the time. Rares in Warlords are more like one time rares, mostly, you get the item and move on; one time explosions of loot. Creating more end-game points of interest - you can kill rares, do events, quest, get rep, etc. It all connects and is more holistic than Timeless Isle. This is more rewarding and has more content. No more achievements to kill all the rares! We are going for "fun, new, and shiny!"

Is this the replacement to the repetitive nature of dailies?-Very few quests on Timeless Isle, but also, it turned out, not enough quests. We are looking for a balance between those things. The process of knowing what the audience wants in terms of dailies is also always ongoing.

Are we trying to shift away from completionism? That seems like quite a big shift.-Pet battles taught us about risk and rewards in terms of feeling required to complete them. They were an entirely optional feature that gave no player rewards but a TON of people did it! This felt optional and fun, like playing Hearthstone or something, instead of feeling required; it's your choice and fun.

Darkmoon Faire and Heirlooms-What's with the cost for heirlooms there?-We still needed a cap on heirloom purchases so they retain value. Heirloom returns are still being discussed for other vendors.

What about the Darkmoon Faire race course that was on the beta?-We loved some elements of it but it was not polished; "I'm not saying it will never come back!"

Any word on if we'll ever have flying in Draenor?-Depends on how not flying turns out as a gameplay experience. We are forced to be honest to ourselves about what's fun. We were allowed to make super overpowered garrison toys because there's no flying. As well as spawning, which will maybe feel old school now that you can't just fly to your destination. No plans right now for future flying, we're going to play it by ear!

Later the same day we interviewed World of Warcraft Creative Director Alex Afrasiabi

Alex Afrasiabi gave us some awesome insight into zone design and "The Orc Situation" in Warlords of Draenor!

What do you do for WoW?As the Creative Director, I'm guiding creative visions with my hands in everything

What's the word on Blood Elf models?-No date for that, but they are looking awesome and they are working hard on getting them modeled.

Will be any further race customization options?-Hard to do super wild skins like Dark Iron Dwarf or Taunka, but we are always interested in how to make our characters look cooler.

Are existing models going to be honed?-Maybe in 10 years. These are above and beyond now. I wouldn't rule it out.

Any worgen or goblin changes?-Don't know about those models, but not out of the question.

Was the decision to let players keep their old character models intended all along or last minute?-Yes, intended, but more for performance reasons. Some machines can't handle new models but we want WoW on lots of different types of machines.

Will we see the Rest of Tanaan? Level 100 areas? 6.1 teasers?-I can't talk about unreleased content but we will see Tanaan for sure and we are excited for fans to see it. "It's coming!"

How you do approach coming up with art/zone design differently for a zone you intended players to fly in vs no flying?-Zone layout becomes a slippery slope with designing for flying. So we have stuck with not accounting for flying in terms of zone flow. Pace and flow of zones is designed for not flying. Draenor specifically we did a good job with running around the zones and identifying the "pain points" of getting around zones, and remedied this by, for example, inserting flight paths. Want to get around faster? Get a mage tower and stables.

Will you be sticking with the new flight path philosophy?-Continuing to evolve flight paths to be as comfortable as possible. We have exciting stuff in the works for "that type of thing" "kind of like transport" that you won't see for a while.

How do you balance keeping the flavor and references to old zones of Outland to be recognizable while still appearing fresh and new?-All about balance. Be true to Outland by calling back/out those points almost mechanically. Remind the player of it. We made an active effort to make world call back to itself. But you can't just copy all the geography, so we have a nice balance of old and new.

We’ve seen a lot of orcs for several expansions--what are some design challenges to keep them exciting and new with some variation?-We redid whole zones because of this issue. Gorgrond and Shadowmoon Valley were completely redone. In fact, we called this "The Orc Situation" and thought, what are we doing about it? We put our minds to making sure this wasn't a situation. Gorgrond was 90% Iron Horde; 24/7 Orcs all over the place, so we redid the zones. Designers worked their butts off to get Gorgrond up and awesome. Gorgrond was also an experimental zone where we tested Garrisons out in the world. The outpost here alters what quest chain you would get, so we crossed those over with bonus objectives so you have the inverse incentive to go places depending on your outpost.

How was Shadowmoon changed?PAX east build was max "orc situation" level. After finishing in Tanaan, players used to start at Karabor attacked by iron horde, leaving a giant scar through the whole zone. We realized, Blasted Lands was orcs, Tanaan was orcs, and SMV was also orcs? 24/7 orcs was too much. Shadowmoon crew worked their butts off to control the orc situation. Flow of the zone was entirely reversed. Karabor is your reward at the end, you worked for this to save it at the end.

Without flying, what does this open up for you design wise? What things can you do that you previously couldn't when you expect everyone to fly?-In the past we HAVE designed specific AREAS of zones for flying but not critical quest paths. But yes, this has evolved as well because we do go to great lengths to increase exploration and detail. If we were designing spires with flying, there would probably no tree tops.

Legendary Quest Chain -- what have you learned from the old one? what do you want to apply with new one?-It's a refinement of MOP. Refined on the pain points, but we do want to encourage people to do activities. This questline feels more natural. The quest lines in WOD are heavily story related, and became a great way for us to show case story moments. Giving good exposure to lore of the world.

Where are we now with questing? We saw 2 extremes in MOP where 5.0 was a deluge of Dailies, and Timeless Isle had almost no quests?-Questing continues to evolve. This is something we hotly debate internally. Questing system, as a whole, is dated. 10 years ago, it was new and novel. As years have progressed, "collect 10 bear asses quest", after 400 of those, there's nothing special you can really do with that. We are always looking for ways to repackage that. What we want is to bring people together (like at BlizzCon!), so how can we bring people together and keep people together in game. We have noticed that we have been tending to isolate people, which is good in the sense that it makes it feel personal, but the cost is things like weird phasing issues. Our main goal is to keep people together so that conflicts. We are digging deep on this one and are rethinking it. Not making whole world group quests but looking to get people out in the world and meet each other. We're not a single player game, and we want to emphasize the social.

What sorts of creative solutions go along with that?-Always experimenting. You can never do a wholesale swap of systems, but we're incrementally testing things.

What max level things can you do with your Garrison that aren't tied to buildings?--we've heard about some story quests with Azkua Bladefury? We've heard a lot about invasions, including some new tidbits in our previous interview about the types of mobs that attack you.-There are "chapter quests" that change every week that send you to max level points of interest around Draenor that are tied to the fabric of the story around Warlods. Invasions are tested in the level up experience and then at max level they become important and a big deal in terms of rewards and you should do them with friends, to increase your chance of success. Weekly/bi-weekly adventures.What is the purpose of faction hubs when players also get a hearthstone to their garrison which has lots of useful vendors? Lots of reasons to be in the garrison.-Faction hub has changed from past expansions. Garrisons changed everything. We have added places for people to go, spread out; Garrisons, we have capital cities and they are spread into, so now we have 2 more cities in the content and Ashran for them to spread to? How far do we want to spread our player base? "We can't have both" - we don't want you to be upset about Karabor and Bladespire, but we picked garrisons because they are awesome.

The first major Hearthstone expansion card set has been announced: Goblins vs Gnomes! Blizzard revealed it in the opening ceremonies of BlizzCon 2014!

The expansion will add over 120 new cards, including a new minion type called Mech that various cards will act on, and is coming out December 2014! Check out the logo and the officially revealed cards below!

Cards

Game Board

It will also include a great new board:

Desktop Wallpaper

We've also got the new key art for it conveniently resized for use as a desktop wallpaper! Click below to check it out:

Blizzard's Announcement

Powering up and exploding onto the scene: Goblins vs Gnomes, Hearthstone’s first expansion, has been officially EXPLODING revealed today at BlizzCon!

Expand-o-Matic 5000!

Goblins vs Gnomes throws players smack dab in the middle of a rivalry between cunning goblin engineers and their eternally-tinkering gnome counterparts. These pint-size foes don’t always have the upper hand over the myriad mechanical contraptions they cook up, and the results can be . . . unpredictable.

Over 120 New Cards

The expansion brings a slew of brand-new cards that are ready to wreak a wealth of mechanized havoc on your opponent: Our own tinkerers and explosives aficionados have assembled over 120 new cards that will be sure to throw a wrench in your opponent’s gears—literally. Check out a few of the wild and wacky inventions that have been engineered for your collection below!

Meet the Mechs

The new expansion brings with it an all-new minion type—Mechs. Much like the Alarm-o-Bot and Harvest Golem, these quirky contraptions have been built to pack a creative spring-loaded punch to your game. Goblins vs Gnomes will introduce both neutral and class-specific Mechs, so prepare for things to get interesting*!

Big Trouble, Little Packages

Stirring up trouble this December for Windows®, Mac®, and iPad®, Goblins vs Gnomes cards will be available by purchasing Goblins vs Gnomes-specific card packs in the in-game shop with either gold or real money, whichever you prefer (same pricing as expert card packs). As with Curse of Naxxramas, Goblins vs Gnomes cards will be made available in your Arena picks as soon as the cards have been released; even if you haven’t added them to your personal collection!

Prepare (Your Kneecaps) for Battle!

We hope you enjoyed this early look at Hearthstone’s first expansion—Goblins vs Gnomes. Stay tuned for further details right here on our brand new Goblins vs Gnomes page here! Keep an eye out** for the expansion in December!

*We take no responsibility for damages if things get too “interesting”.

**Please wear safety goggles at all times when engaging with Goblins or Gnomes.

BlizzCon Fireside Chat Recap

At today's fireside chat we saw a discussion of players using skill to handle randomness, which ties in well with the many new random effects in the Goblins vs Gnomes cards. They then talked about why they chose to go with Goblins vs Gnomes for their first expansion, showed off the board, and some of the cards we'll be seeing in it. A lot of the cards play off or effect minions categorized as a "Mech", and even old cards like Harvest Golem and Mechanical Dragonling are now Mech minions. The cards in the expansion will be purchasable just like normal card packs, and the cards can be crafted with the same Arcane Dust as current cards.

Spectator mode has also finally gotten a preview. You'll be able to jump in and spectate games of players in your friends list and view it from their perspective, and they'll be able to see that you're spectating. It will also have support for spectating multiple players at once so you can see both of their hands for games such as in tournaments.

Check out Blizzard's complete recap below!

If you haven’t heard, the first expansion for Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft will feature the zany, brainy, delightfully surprising chaos that inevitably occurs whenever there’s a contest of wits between Azeroth’s most diminutive denizens: it’s Goblins vs Gnomes!

Hearthstone senior game designer Ben Brode, game director Eric Dodds, and senior producer Yong Woo took to the panel stage on Saturday to talk shop about Goblins vs Gnomes, and what we can expect when we get our mitts on the new expansion once it’s released.

Senior Game Designer Ben BrodeBen kicked off the panel to discuss Hearthstone’s first year with some interesting stats, ranging from what are the ‘best’ and worst’ cards in Hearthstone, a bit of a post-mortem on Curse of Naxxramas (pun intended), and the role that randomness plays in games (including Hearthstone), which is what we’ll focus on here.

Randomness and YouRandomness has been the source of much ire in the Hearthstone community. Whether it’s seeing an opponent draw the perfect card at just the right moment to foil our plans, or Tinkmaster Overspark turning an opposing minion into a Devilsaur when we really need a chicken, randomness can be frustrating. We’ve all had a moment when we felt like we played masterfully, only to have victory snatched away by a single moment of bad luck. It’s easy to feel like the existence of any randomness in a game means that skill matters less.

Take a look at this graph, where games of pure luck where there is no skill required are on the left, and games that are purely skill-based with no random elements are on the right. Many players feel that Hearthstone, and all games for that matter, falls somewhere along this spectrum:

In reality, that graph is totally misleading because the relationship between luck and skill doesn’t work like that. Luck and skill are independent, and a given game can have different amounts of each. The real situation looks more like this:

Every game you can win or lose falls somewhere on a graph like this. Tic-tac-toe has no randomness, but it also requires almost no skill. There is no Tic-tac-toe world championship, because once you know “the strategy” every game ends in a tie. Some games that are extremely luck-based (like Monopoly) very rarely have moments where you can exercise your superior skill to win.

Chess is a classic example of a game that includes a lot of skill and no randomness. However, at the highest levels games like this often require massive amounts of memorization, since games often play out in the same way. Bobby Fischer, one of the greatest Chess players of all time, actually proposed randomizing the back row of pieces to help solve this problem with high-level Chess!

That leaves the games that feature both high randomness and high skill. Games like Poker . . . and Hearthstone! While any particular hand of Poker is random, the best players still win consistently, and Hearthstone is no different. Look at players like Kolento, who place highly in tournaments over and over again.

Games in this high-randomness, high-skill category have two really cool attributes. First, you are constantly presented with novel situations. If every game of Hearthstone was like the last, it would be easy to memorize a game plan and just execute it over and over again. Instead, randomness makes it necessary be quick thinking and solve new problems in every game. A Hearthstone game is more than one turn, and to win consistently, a player must act and react to changing circumstances turn after turn to make the most of what is happening in a match and set up a victory. In this case, randomness actually increases the amount of skill required to perform well, precisely because it can throw a wrench in our plans and forces us to think on our feet.

The second great thing about this type of game is the frequency of awesome player stories. When you need one specific minion to win a Brawl or you lose, and BOOM: It all goes down exactly right—your Armorsmith survives and you manage to turn the game around with an incredible play! That’s a great story! Randomness increases the excitement and frequency of these memorable events.

This combination of novel scenarios and crazy player stories is a huge part of what makes Hearthstone a TON of fun.

Game Director Eric DoddsGame Director Eric Dodds then took to the stage to talk about the new Hearthstone expansion: Goblins vs Gnomes!

A Hearthstone Expansion!?That’s right! An expansion! Over 120 cards packed with Goblin and Gnomish awesomeness. Need something blown up . . . or transmogrified . . . or flattened by a gigantic, ridiculous, smoke-spewing engine of destruction? You need look no further, the mayhem has arrived!

Sounds Great! But Why Goblins vs Gnomes?There was definitely some discussion before the Hearthstone team settled on Goblins vs Gnomes for the first expansion. First, the team looked at where Hearthstone had already been. The first Hearthstone Adventure, The Curse of Naxxramas, took place in Kel’thuzad’s dread, dank, and dark necropolis: Naxxramas. The team injected Naxxramas with a healthy dose of snarky fun using a Grobbulus-sized syringe, but at its heart, Naxxramas is still a pretty serious place about creepy undead stuff with a doom-and-gloom theme.

The team wanted to do something very different for the first Hearthstone expansion. Something more light-hearted, colorful, and a little zany. And, as always, it had to be FUN! Goblins and Gnomes are famous for their wonderful inventions, and they also have a unique way of inspiring passion! Some people love them and all that they do. Some people would rather see them all zapped by their own creations. Whether these diminutive demolitionists are your favorite thing and you play them every chance you get, or the pint-sized puntables are your first target for total annihilation, Goblins vs Gnomes has something for everyone! Goblins vs Gnomes cards are packed with crazy creations that will expand player deck options in huge, delightfully surprising ways.

Of course the REAL reason we went with Goblins vs. Gnomes is the song:

Goblin FuryGoblins are known for their business acumen and their love of big explosions, and definitely not in that order. At the heart of Goblin engineering lies a deep, overwhelming desire to see things explode. Sure, ideally that means the enemy, but that’s not what you’d call a strict requirement. As long as someone is getting blown up, then your average Goblin will be happy.

For Gnomeregan!Conversely, what Gnomes do, they do FOR SCIENCE! While Gnomish inventions are less likely to leave smoking craters, they are significantly more likely to turn innocent bystanders into poultry. In fact, it seems like a lot of Gnomish engineering is a combination of the wackiest technology imaginable and a hefty dose of ‘turning-things-into-other-things probably-by-accident.’ Odds are, rather than blowing something up, a Gnomish invention will usually just leave the unfortunate target wishing they’d been blown up.

Battlefield TechnologyWhile they’re often at odds, Goblins and Gnomes combined their engineering know-how to crank out a brand new board for Hearthstone: Goblins vs Gnomes. While the technology has proven too disastrously unstable to allow operation at BlizzCon, you can be sure that when Gnomes vs Goblins arrives, the devices scattered around the edges of this board will be working spectacularly in ways that probably bear absolutely no resemblance whatsoever to what was originally intended.

Mechanically SpeakingWhile Goblins and Gnomes are at the heart of this particular contest, the real stars of the show are the crazed mechanical creations that they’ve built. Goblins vs Gnomes brings with it a new mechanical minion type: Mechs. Many of the new cards are Mechs, or interact with Mechs in interesting ways. Each class also has its own Mech-based cards that help ensure that making a deck featuring Mechs prominently will be viable, and that they’ll fit well even in non-Mech focused decks. Some old favorites that clearly have been Mechs all along now have a shiny Mech type bolted onto their cards as well. Finally, and possibly most importantly: GIANT ROBOTS!

EJECT! EJECT!Of course, not all Mechs are automatons. Some Mechs have pilots, and when the Mech is destroyed, the pilot hits the big shiny red eject button, parachutes onto the field, and carries on the fight! Usually that’s a lower cost minion than the original Mech, but Sneed left his old shredder behind when he was defeated in the Deadmines, and only a Legendary minion could possibly master those controls. Of course, which Legendary minion was in the cockpit varies wildly. It could be Lorewalker Cho . . . or it could be Ragnaros! Sure, Rags might have some trouble scrunching down into the pilot’s seat, but don’t overthink it. All things are possible WITH SCIENCE!

Got A Spare?Goblins and Gnomes love tinkering. A thing isn’t good until it’s been bettered with a few engineering “improvements”. That love of tinkering is reflected in Goblins vs Gnomes with Spare Parts cards. These 1 mana spells are acquired in a variety of ways, and playing those cards lets players improve an existing minion just a little bit, or maybe inconvenience their opponent at a critical moment. While they can’t be added directly to a deck, a random Spare Part can often be acquired when certain minions join the fray, or are dismantled, leaving useful bits and bobs in the crater where they used to stand.

Magnificent MayhemOf course, other cards will also be added that aren’t Mechs, Goblins, or Gnomes. To give you a taste of what we mean, we submit the Warrior’s Bouncing Blade spell in the “Only a Goblin would think this is a good idea” category:

The Best Deals Anywhere!So how do you bolt Goblins vs Gnomes fun onto your collection? You’ll be able to get Goblins vs Gnomes packs for the same cost (in either gold or real money) as the existing Expert Hearthstone packs. If you’re already sitting on a hefty stockpile of dust, then you’re in luck! You can also craft Goblins vs Gnomes cards for the same dust costs—based on rarity—as the current cards. Just wait until you see what happens when you open a Goblins vs Gnome pack!

Senior Producer Yong WooOn the subject of seeing, Yong Woo took to the stage to talk about another exciting feature that will be arriving alongside Goblins vs. Gnomes. . .

It’s Better With FriendsOne of the things that we realized early on while working on Hearthstone is that it’s a game that is just as much fun to watch as it is to play! Whenever one of us is in a really good game, the whole team will gather around to watch, talk about Hearthstone, and chat about cards and deck concepts.

It’s a really great experience, and it’s one of our favorite ways to play Hearthstone: surrounded by friends. It’s also the reason why we’re so excited when Fireside Gatherings bring players together to play face-to-face and hang out. Of course, sometimes your friends can’t be in the same room. Sometimes they’re not even on the same continent! That’s one of the things we love about the Blizzard community: we’re always making friends from around the world.

With that in mind, we’ve been working hard on another feature. It might be the number one most requested feature since the release of Hearthstone. . .

That’s right! We’ve been working to make Spectator Mode a reality. You will soon be able to watch your friend’s games as if they were sitting right next to you when the explosives start flying in Goblins vs Gnomes!

Sounds Great! But How Does It Work?After Goblins vs Gnomes comes out, when you bring up your Friends list, you’ll see a new Spectate button next to your friends who are playing games. We wanted to make using Spectator Mode as easy as walking behind your friend’s computer, so watching their game is as simple as clicking the Spectate button!

Once you’re watching your friend’s game, it’s almost as though you’re sitting in front of their computer. You can watch them hover over their cards and minions as they ponder their next move. You can see them point their targeting arrow and follow along with their thought process. You can even see the emotes the players are using. It really feels as though you’re playing the game, but there’s a Spectator Mode indicator on the bottom-left corner to remind you that you’re just watching, so no matter how badly you might want you, you can’t take over when your friend misses lethal!

On the other hand, as a spectator, you have full control over what you’re looking at. As the game progresses, you can hover over cards and minions to get full card text and the details on buffs, and you can also check out the history to see what happened before you started watching!

We Love An Audience!When someone is spectating your game, you’ll see an indicator on the bottom left to let you know that you’ve got company. It will show you how many of your friends are watching, and who they are. And of course, if you’d rather not have spectators, you can set Spectator Mode to invitation only, and even ‘kick’ unwanted spectators from your game.

We’ve received a lot of requests for a good way to cast a match between two players without having to stitch together multiple streams, so we also wanted Spectator Mode to be useful for casting tournaments. So, Spectator Mode will support spectating two players at the same time. You’ll be able to view both players’ hands, and casters will be able to keep tabs on both players from within a single Hearthstone client.

That’s All. . . For Now!That’s all these Hearthstone heroes had for us at BlizzCon, but you can be sure that there’s more exciting Goblins vs. Gnomes gnews coming before its release this December, so keep your goggles soot-free and keep those transmitters pointed in this direction to stay tuned!

The virtual ticket gives you access to live streams of all the BlizzCon panels, and exclusive DirecTV broadcasts in between them, as well as the chance to watch all the tournaments taking place over the weekend.

You'll also get on-demand video of anything you missed. Not only that, but you'll receive all the virtual items: the adorable Grommloc murloc pet, a Hearthstone Card Back, Diablo transmogs, a Heroes of the Storm mount, and Starcraft portraits and decal!

All you need to do to enter the contest to win one of ten Virtual Tickets is:

tweet @Wowhead with the thing you're most excited about seeing at BlizzCon

include the hashtag #wowheadpartytime

Winners will be picked on Thursday, November 6th. We will be sending the Virtual Ticket codes to ten lucky winners via Twitter Direct Message, so make sure you're following @Wowhead!

Wowhead BlizzCon Party In Two Days

The Wowhead BlizzCon Party is in just two days! Join us from 7pm this Thursday at the Anabella Hotel's Tangerine Bar and Grill for a fun-filled evening!

Of course, you don't need a virtual ticket, even a BlizzCon ticket at all to attend our party. If you're in the Anaheim area you can come on down, and players all over the world can watch the live stream on Wowhead! There's no advance sign-up to get in, and everyone has a chance to win prizes, even those joining us for the livestream right here on the site!

What's new this year?

This year we've got a substantially increased capacity, as we've booked out the inside of the Anabella Hotel as well as the patio and pool area!

WoW Parody Artist Silver Letomi will be joining our hosts on the stage to serenade the crowd with her fantastic WoW parodies!

We've got some top Cosplayers attending the party to make your photos even better!

Our photo booth lets you take party pictures with friends old and new, and share them straight away on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram!

HyperX Cloud Headset Giveaway

We weren't kidding! We've already begun giving away the amazing ultra-comfortable HyperX Cloud headsets, and the HyperX 3K SSDs, and all you have to do to enter is subscribe to the HyperX Youtube Channel through the contest panel below! You could win either a headset or an SSD! This giveaway is US-only, but don't worry, we've got a lot more awesome giveaways with digital codes coming up which are worldwide!

Smite critical hits should no longer incorrectly cause the target to be healed for a greater than intended amount through Atonement while also receiving a larger than intended damage shield that's granted through Divine Aegis.

Shadow

Mastery: Mental Anguish now increases damage by 3.125% per point (up from 2.5%).

Settings for SET ffxGlow should no longer be resetting when exiting the game client.

Warlords Beta Ending

Blizzard Community Manager Nethaera has posted that Warlords Beta will end Monday November 3rd.

Blizzard

The end of the Warlords of Draenor beta test is upon us. As of Monday, November 3 at 4:00 p.m. PDT, the beta realms will be taken offline and players will no longer have access to the beta. But before we bring down the realms, we’d like to invite all beta testers to join us at 2:00 p.m. PDT for an end of beta event. We’ll laugh, we’ll cry, we’ll trade bad puns, and probably let loose just a little chaos too.

We’d like to thank everyone who took the time to test the beta, provide feedback, and break ground with us on Warlords of Draenor. While this is the end of beta, it’s not the end of the road as we prepare for the final release of the expansion on November 13. We look forward to seeing you there as we push through the Dark Portal once more and explore all that Draenor has to offer.

Character Transfer and Faction Change Sales Extended

The Warcraft Twitter Account has just announced that their ongoing Character Transfer and Faction Change Sale has been extended to November 3rd! Character Transfer is priced at $18.75, and Faction Change at $22.50.

Wowhead Tooltip Improvements

As Warlords of Draenor gets closer, the Wowhead team has even more site updates to share, as Perculia describes below.

These tooltips default to showing follower information for one faction, such as Cacklebone. If you want the URL to see what the other faction gets, click on the “View Alliance” or “View Horde” red button by Quick Facts. You can browse all Garrison followers in our followers database at http://www.wowhead.com/followers.

Another important part of Garrisons is that you can craft epic gear without having a profession. Crafting spell tooltips now show if you need a Level 2 or Level 3 Garrison building to craft that item without a profession.

ArtCraft Level Design Parts 3 and 4

Parts three and four of the Artcraft series on Level Design have been posted! If you're looking to read the whole series, part one and part two were also shared on Wowhead.

ArtCraft Level Design Part 4

Hi, I’m Chris Robinson, senior art director of World of Warcraft. In this last installment of this four-part Artcraft series, WoW community manager Bashiok sat down with a few of the level designers who created Nagrand to pick their brains a bit more on the process of creating the zone.

Hey everyone—so for all the peoples out there, go ahead and introduce yourselves, and for fun, name a zone you’ve worked on in the past.

Ian: I’m Ian Gerdes, level designer on World of Warcraft, and the zone I was probably most involved with in Mists [of Pandaria] was Isle of Thunder.

Ed: I’m Ed Hanes—I’ve been at Blizzard for 13 years, and the first zone I ever worked on was Ghostlands for The Burning Crusade expansion.

Kevin: I’m Kevin Lee, a four-year vet here at Blizzard, and I worked on the Jade Forest in Pandaria.

Damarcus: Hey there I’m Damarcus Holbrook. I’m the new guy, so all my focus has been on Warlords; specifically for this discussion, the exterior of the Highmaul Raid in Nagrand.

What were some of the specific challenges you had with creating Nagrand?

Ian: I think a lot of it was trying to preserve the original layout as much as we could. Nagrand was kind of the one zone that was never really as wrecked as the other zones were from being shattered. It’s kind of blue skies and green trees, and there’s not fel energy everywhere. So I think trying to preserve some of the landmarks and maintaining the spaces was something we really wanted to make sure remained intact—while still making sure it feels new to the player.

So you obviously had to do some translation of the Outland version. How did you decide how to fill in the areas that were previously destroyed?

Ian: We wanted to preserve some of the silhouette on the world map, so that it still felt familiar. I know Tanaan Jungle was similar in some respects where the edges were broken away, but we still wanted to retain what was Hellfire Peninsula. It was the same for Nagrand. We had a little bit of freedom, however, because there were some parts of the zone that were more obviously destroyed than others, like the southern edge of Oshu’gun and the western border. There were some ogres hanging out there, but nothing substantial in terms of structure, so we decided to add the Raid over there, because it felt like it would be a good extension of the story that fit with the timeline. It ended up getting quite a bit bigger than we had originally planned for. It’s pretty impressive as a zone point of interest (POI) that you can see from a distance, and really breaks up the skyline.

Ed: The biggest challenge was giving a fresh look to something players are familiar with. It’s definitely a zone that players who had that experience in Burning Crusade know; there’s a defined image that comes to mind of what that zone is and what it’s about. A lot of people remember the Nesingwary stuff—the sweeping plains, the angular trees, the floating rock islands, the Throne of Elements. It was one of those zones that was around where a lot of people were hitting their max level, and so it’s got that association with it as well. So that was a huge challenge, figuring out how to keep it fresh while keeping it familiar.

Any stories from Outland people might remember represented in this new old Nagrand?

Ian: On the mountain range north of Nagrand, in the Burning Crusade version, as you were going to Zangarmarsh there was an orphanage that. . . .

Victor: Yeah. . . .

Ian: . . . it was a little . . . creepy. There’s an NPC there, and I think they’ll be making a return. I actually just put a cage in at the Burning Blade POI today, so I’ll be talking to [the quest team] to see if they want to do anything with that. Corki was certainly one of the more memorable quest lines in Nagrand.

Victor: The Ring of Blood is coming back. It’s a bit more upgraded, but the visual style is very similar.

So you put a cage there, but want to go talk to the quest designers. How does that work as far as who is designing what? How much of it is your team coming up with the story of an area, and how much of it is the quest team bringing it in?

Victor: We spend a lot of time with the quest designers, specifically on coming up with really interesting ideas. This expansion specifically is doing a lot of vignette stuff. . . .

Sorry, what’s a vignette?

Victor: It’s an internal term we use for a cool little area or thing you stumble across, something that’s not necessarily part of the main quest line. We’re putting a lot more Easter eggs into the zones this time around, so it doesn’t matter if players find them or not. . . .

Ian: But it’s cool for them if they do.

Victor: We’ve added a lot more vignette stuff, and I was working with Kurt Sparkuhl, a quest designer, on how I could add hidden stuff on the tops of mountains. So we have a lot of vignettes where players have to figure out how to get up there without just being able to walk up. It’s stuff like doing some jumping around to get into an area, and then when you get to the top, you find a goblin with a glider that’ll let you glide to specific areas that aren’t normally accessible. Then if you get through all of that and land on a specific spot, you’re rewarded with whatever the prize is there from a chest or something. We’re doing a lot of that, and Nagrand was a good test bed for those kinds of things.

What’s your favorite area or detail in the zone?

Victor: There are a lot of very cool things we did in Nagrand. For me specifically I did the whole canyon area, so there’s like three big canyons within the zone.

Ian: And that’s kind of a callback to the original zone. . . .Victor: We originally weren’t even planning to do that stuff.>

Ian: It was kind of an iteration of the process, because we had originally gone super crazy with the rolling hills, which looked fantastic, but we needed something to break it up.

Victor: That’s actually kind of an interesting story. The first thing that comes to mind for Nagrand was the rolling hills, and the big open grass areas where you were just killing animals—that was a lot of fun and really stood out to me. I started doing a very elaborate rolling hill layout, where every hill is perfectly molded and you have these perfect views of the zone from every angle. Most of the level designers thought it looked great, but when the quest designers looked at it they thought, “What are we going to do with all this open space?” and it didn’t work—it was just too big of an open area. And so when you start looking at the elements of the zone there are trees everywhere, and I think [lead quest designer] Craig Amai said that what he remembered wasn’t the rolling hills, but the canyons, which was surprising to me. Turns out, it was actually a zone full of canyons. It got me thinking about why I never really remembered these canyons, and looking back it’s that they were pretty bad; there wasn’t really any good gameplay there. Spawns were far apart, they were very narrow, and if you accidentally fell down into one they were just this annoying trap you couldn’t find your way out of. So I looked at what I could do to make them better—made them wider, added multiple sub-zones within them, and added more pathways in and out of them. They turned out really well and we ended up adding two more of them.

What do you want players to experience when they enter Nagrand for the first time?

Victor: I’d like them to see that it’s familiar, but that this is definitely a different time, and that the Warsong clan is here. This is their place.

Ed: Familiar but new. It’d be awesome for people to feel like it’s familiar, but that there’s a lot of new stuff, that it’s a new experience and not just the old Nagrand that’s just been touched up a little.

Could you tell us more about some of the POI’s, how they developed, and what kinds of inspirations were taken from inside and outside of World of Warcraft?

Let’s start with the Warsong clan camp.

Ian: The idea originally was that the Warsong were nomadic, and seasonally would move from the highlands to the lowlands. The idea being that the flood plains would indeed flood, they wouldn’t want to hang out there, and they’d move up to higher ground.

Victor: We ended up using the canyon to illustrate that while their city is both nestled in the canyons and up above them, it still feels like a cohesive city. There’s a river that goes through the entire center of town, but it’s dried out, and it’s supposed to show that when it’s the rainy season it would fill up, so we still tried to pull off that same feeling. We also have where Garrosh is supposed to be sitting in his throne there.

How about the Highmaul Ogres? How did they influence the zone, and how did you try to create a sense of history?

Ed: They were originally supposed to be in the background of the Warsong. However, as the kit was developed, we had a bigger and stronger art push on the look of those guys, and they became a much bigger presence in the zone. Now most of the max level content is focused around them, with that kit being so robust that we were also able to use it in other zones. Their culture actually expanded, I think, as people got on board and dug the vibe of this kind of elevated status of ogre society and their seat of power, and it spread across the expansion.

Ian: Yeah, I think the idea for them was kind of the twilight of the Roman Empire, where their society used to be very grand, and you kind of see how it’s devolving as you look at Frostfire and the Stonemaul. Kind of how ogre society is getting more brutish and less sophisticated and the Highmaul are this last remnant of what they were, or what the Highmaul still are.

Victor: It’s interesting too, because when we first started it was all Warsong—we had this giant Warsong warpath, this giant road, and then we ran into what we called orc fatigue, where the entire expansion just had too much orc. Which fits thematically and makes logical sense, but from a gameplay standpoint gets boring really quickly. So in that process the ogres got elevated quite a bit.

Ian: You get kind of a layered history too, where the ogre empire used to reach across all of Draenor—but over time it’s deteriorated, other races have moved in, and so Victor did a really nice road treatment where you have the sort of ancient and broken ogre tiles, with the newer Warsong paths crisscrossed on top of it.

Ed: And we knew we were going to have the Highmaul Raid, and so once the art started taking shape for that we were able to pull pieces out of it—like this wall or column looks really cool—and were able to use a lot of that to build out their story in the exterior environment.

Tell us more about the Highmaul Raid.

Damarcus: It’s the stronghold, the final stand for the ogres to hold their ground. The orcs are pushing against them, but they’re holding out. You and your friends roll up through their arena first, and you get some cool options on how you want to progress through the first few bosses before you get into the big keep.

Ian: It’s a little less linear than newer raids have been, so it’s kind of a throwback to that old style of non-linear raids and choosing which way you go and which bosses you want to kill in what order.

So is it as open as, say, Firelands?

Damarcus: Actually, so this was the first thing I really got to work on at Blizzard. I ended up making the exterior areas of the Highmaul raid and working with the team who made Firelands—so I looked at that a lot and worked with them on how exterior design works for raiding. Ed and I jammed on layout a bit and we kind of thought a triangular layout would work best where you hit the first boss, and then have three options before coming back in before you get to the keep itself. The layout itself works really well.

What’s about Oshu’gun?

Ed: Kevin is really the guy who worked on a lot of it, but we knew it was one of those parts of Nagrand that we needed to keep. We also of course wanted to do something different with it, and one of the things we pitched early that stuck was to give it to the orcs. They’re there right now, but before that, there was a nice forest wrapping around it, and there are still some remnants of the impact when it crashed into Draenor.

Kevin: We wanted to draw on the crater vibe, to make it look a bit more raw—like this had happened recently versus how it looked in Outland. We also wanted to still have some of the runes around it kind of for the nostalgia factor because that’s how we all remember it looking. You can also go inside of it as part of a quest chain, and into an orc cave inside. It’s one of the main quest story lines and will have a lot more meaning to people when they play through it.

Finally, tell us about the Throne of Elements.

Ian: We really wanted to try to preserve a lot of it. Originally we had it elevated, where it was halfway between the top of the mountains and the lake surface, and the idea was that with the destruction of Draenor, it crashed into the lake. But it blocked the shot of the iconic waterfalls behind it, and there were some other technical constraints, so it ended up more as how we all remember it. Also up top on the Elemental Plateau where people probably remember farming motes, there were elementals kind of sharing a space, but we wanted to break that out into four distinct areas where each is represented. So for the fire area, the ground is all dried out and scorched, the water elemental section is where the waterfalls are up above the throne, and the earth and air sections are nearby.

Ed: Real estate–wise it commands a bigger presence than it did previously, for sure.

Hey there, Chris again. So this wraps up this exterior level design series, but this is by no means the end of the line. We hope that we’ve been able to provide a bit more insight on what it takes to create a zone in World of Warcraft, and look forward to seeing you make your way into Draenor. We’ve put a lot into trying to create some truly epic environments and experiences for those of you who take up the challenge of fighting back against the Iron Horde. Until next time, thanks for reading!

ArtCraft Level Design Part 3

Hi again, I’m World of Warcraft senior art director Chris Robinson. In this third installment of this Artcraft series, senior level designer Ely Cannon explains a bit more about the level designer’s role in bringing World of Warcraft’s landscape to life.

Hi, I’m Ely Cannon, a senior member of the level design team for World of Warcraft, and I wanted to talk a little about the role that World of Warcraft level designers play in developing the visual style for our zones. On the WoW team, we look for artists who also have design experience, or designers with art skills, for our level design team. This is essential to our process since each level designer is ultimately the gatekeeper for the visual style and tone of the zone he or she is working on.

This process starts with the pre-production work for a zone. Working with an environment artist, the level designer will help guide and define the scope of environment assets needed. These assets include terrain textures, trees, bushes, accent plants, rocks, etc. The range of models and textures needed must address not only the main zone look, but the sub-environment types needed to break up the zone. Not only that, but the textures must do this all while bringing the concept to life and remaining within the capabilities of our game engine. It can be a challenge, and often is.

Take, for example, the new Nagrand. Not only does it encompass the environment that you know of as the Nagrand from Outland, but it also contains new areas, like a wetlands and a higher-elevation arid region. These disparate environmental themes could clash quite jarringly if not handled with care. To keep the zone’s development moving in the right direction, the level designer and the environment artist need to constantly discuss shape language, color, diversity, scale, mood, model usage, and ultimately, the visual tone of the zone as a whole.

The environment artists make the models and textures, and the level designer sculpts and paints the terrain, places the trees, rocks, and bushes—all the while considering gameplay and both the art and design direction. A typical day for our level designers will include decisions about the overall look and feel of a zone, as well as paying finite attention to detail, like how one plant looks when placed next to another plant in the scene.

Nagrand in Warlords of Draenor is a good example of the color relationships between textures. The vast sweeping savannahs of verdant green which make up a large portion of Nagrand presented a particular challenge: how can we get color depth into massive green fields while staying true to the concept? At first glance, the fields and rolling hills seem to be simply green grass—and lots of it. On closer inspection, you’ll notice a carefully selected range of green tones used to render the savannahs of Nagrand. Each of the green tones is a unique grass texture which is meticulously blended with the others in the set to create the effect seen in-game. Likewise, the sub-zones in Nagrand diverge from the main zone color scheme in very specific ways. These were defined early in the process to ensure that players would experience a diverse range of environment types while playing through the zone, and ultimately when they return for max-level content.

Our artists and designers work together to build and iterate on zones quickly, creating huge play areas with a consistent level of visual quality. In the last segment of this Artcraft series, you’ll learn more about Nagrand and the challenges in building the zone from five of our level designers: Victor Chong, Ian Gerdes, Ed Hanes, Damarcus Holbrook, and Kevin Lee.

With our BlizzCon party coming soon, at the Anabella Hotel in Anaheim on Thursday November 6th at 7pm, we wanted to take the opportunity to tell you about one of our sponsors, and give away even more virtual tickets into the bargain!

HyperX sponsors our BlizzCon Party

You'll all have heard that we're throwing a huge party at BlizzCon this year, and our sister site Hearthhead is thrilled to reveal that one of our sponsors will be HyperX, makers of the HyperX Cloud gaming headset, as well as other hardware like SSDs and more. They've even been generous enough to give us several HyperX Cloud gaming headsets to give away!

Virtual Ticket Giveaway

And to celebrate HyperX's generosity Hearthhead has received five Virtual Tickets to give away, courtesy of Blizzard! The virtual ticket gives you access to live streams of all the BlizzCon panels, and exclusive DirecTV broadcasts in between them, as well as the chance to watch all the tournaments taking place over the weekend.

You'll also get on-demand video of anything you missed. Not only that, but you'll receive all the virtual items: the adorable Grommloc murloc pet, a Hearthstone Card Back, Diablo transmogs, a Heroes of the Storm mount, and Starcraft portraits and decal! And you'll be able to buy the exclusive items in the BlizzCon store!

All you need to do to enter the contest to win one of five Virtual Tickets is tell us what gaming peripheral or hardware you couldn't live without in the comments below! Yes, it will count comments on this post too!

In today's roundup we have a mount tease, as you can see, but there's also a post on gear changes from Blizzard. You can now not only upgrade your gear twice more come patch 5.4.8, but there's also a way being added to trade Timeless Coins for Valor. Not only that, but all Garrosh heirlooms will be increased in ilvl by 8, as Bashiok notes on the official forums.

This is your last chance to get special BlizzCon merchandise--since we last previewed the store, tons of new items have been added to the shop like World of Warcraft cookie cutters. The best part is that you don't need a Virtual Ticket to access this sale!

Blizzard

Another BlizzCon’s come and gone, but there’s still a chance to snag some cool commemorative Warcraft, StarCraft, and Diablo merchandise from the show. From now through November 17, anyone can purchase select items from the BlizzCon 2013 Store directly through theOnline Blizzard Store—no need to have a BlizzCon ticket or Virtual Ticket in order to participate. Here’s a sampling of the legendary loot you’ll find:

You’ll find lots of other stuff too, including select items from past BlizzCon events, though keep in mind supplies are limited. Head to the online Blizzard Store’sBlizzCon storefront to begin browsing, or click More Products > BlizzCon from the Blizzard Store home page.